Police: Early morning shooting lands Edgewater man in jail

An Edgewater man was charged with aggravated assault early Tuesday morning after police said he fired a shot at a man in the parking lot of a beachside bar and grill.

MARK I. JOHNSONSTAFF WRITER

NEW SMYRNA BEACH —An Edgewater man was charged with aggravated assault early Tuesday morning after police said he fired a shot at a man in the parking lot of a beachside bar and grill. A New Smyrna Beach police officer conducted a felony traffic stop on David Michael Jones II, 23, as he drove his pickup at Live Oak Street and Douglas Avenue about 2:50 a.m. Responding to a report of a shooting in the parking lot of Moe's Bar and Grill, 4186 S. Atlantic Ave., New Smyrna Beach police Officer Brian Page spotted Jones' pickup driving west on Third Avenue. Page followed the pickup over the South Causeway Bridge before activating his emergency lights. Jones stopped and was secured, the arrest report said. Police said about an hour before, the victim, Buddy Lee Yarbrough, 36, New Smyrna Beach, was cleaning the parking lot near Moe's when he saw a person identified as Jones banging on the door of the restaurant. Yarbrough told Jones he needed to stop and leave, the report said. Jones then started taking pictures of Yarbrough with his cellular phone, the report said. Yarbrough told Jones to leave, and Jones went to his pickup and circled the parking lot twice, police said. The report indicated Jones waived a black semi-automatic pistol at Yarbrough before getting out of the truck and firing a single shot at him. Yarbrough was not injured. Jones drove away, and Yarbrough contacted the bartender at Moe's, who called police. During a search of Jones' pickup, police said officers found a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol in the center console. They also found a spent .40-caliber bullet casing on the truck's passenger side floorboard. The gun was loaded with 12-rounds in a 13-round magazine and there was one bullet in the chamber, the report said. During their investigation, police said the bartender told an officer while at the bar earlier that evening Jones, whom she described as "a quiet customer," had acted "a little strange." The report said she told the officer that Jones had told her a group of people in the bar buying liquor had a female locked in the trunk of their vehicle. That group left without incident. Once officers completed their investigation, Jones was arrested and taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail where he was released Tuesday morning on $1,500 bail.